Wert’s Werds: When 2.15 million people say ‘I need to take the day’

I’ll admit, it’s a weird thing to see 2.15 million people at the same time say a phrase akin to “I need to take the day” and everything pretty much grinds to a halt.

There was a clear and easily explained reason the entire Nashville metropolitan area decided to just tell Tuesday, August 25, 2026 to go take a long walk off a short pier.

When the news Dolly Parton had died, it was almost like someone dropped a bomb on the city of Nashville. It didn’t seem to matter who it was that heard the news, everyone had the same visceral reaction like they just lost a close and personal friend. Restaurants came to a stand-still. Businesses all across the region let phones ring for a bit as their staff just looked at each other in disbelief she was gone.

Personally, and I cannot scientifically back this up, but I think the sun actually dimmed a little bit and hasn’t gone back to its prior incandescence. 

The world knew Dolly Parton for all the amazing things she did in her life as a performer. Whether she was singing, acting, talking on a television talk show or delivering a commencement address at some small college, people had some idea of Dolly and felt like they almost knew her.

In Nashville, it was a little different…because not only did everyone “know” her because of her celebrity, there are thousands of people who in the literal sense knew her. They encountered her at some industry event like the CMA awards or were greeted by her as they were working backstage sewing a dress for someone at the Grand Ole Opry or just happened to drop off a guitar at a recording studio complex while Dolly was talking to someone in the lobby. People shared their moments of time with Dolly with a reverence you would expect reserved for someone like the Pope.

After the initial shockwave, people who had actually engaged with her in some way locally began telling their stories of a woman who I think was a prime example of fulfilling a Christian’s call from God to give freely as we have received freely. While much of her charity work had to be public by nature of its size and scope, like her Imagination Library, I began to hear of the charity work without any fanfare and her benevolence to individuals. 

Some of the stories I’ve heard since her passing?

Local charities who needed an emergency donation for HVAC repair or a transport vehicle would receive an anonymous donation which just happened to cover the entire need with a little left over. Single moms would come home to find an envelope containing a gift card to a local grocery store that would feed the family for at least a year. Kids who were coming up a little short on their college tuition would suddenly have their school tell them of a surprise donation which came in that would help offset the cost. 

Hundreds of people who either were personally helped in a time of struggle or who knew someone helped in their hour of need by Dolly in ways those around her made sure wouldn’t be thrown out to the social media cesspool to put the spotlight on her. She was a woman who knew where she came from, was in a place to help people who were once like her, and she did it. 

That was enough for her. 

The entire Nashville community respected her for it and kept her secret giving a secret. 

I know one place where despite the cone of silence people around her used to keep her donations from the public eye, there is one place all of her good works weren’t a secret. While I cannot prove it, I’ll be willing to bet my Branson Globe paycheck when Dolly got there, she heard the words “well done, good and faithful servant.”